What’sMeanttoBe
by elizabethhhhhhh
Summary: Percy and Annabeth havent talked since she saw him kiss Rachel in the dining pavilion. Now, a year later, they’ve both returned to camp as completely different people, and Percy starts to realize the feelings he has for her. Will it be to late to change their fate?
1. 1

Percy didn't know where things went bad in their relationship. They had been the best of friends before. They even lead the camp in the Titan War and won together. She was his best weapon. Maybe that's where it went wrong. He only saw her as his battle strategist. She wanted to be more to him.

Whatever they had between them, it was over now. When they had gotten back to camp after the war, Rachel and Percy were sitting in the dining pavilion talking, when Rachel kissed him. He didn't pull away until he saw Annabeth out of the corner of his eye holding something blue. Before he could shout her name, she was running back to the Athena cabin. He had tried to talk to her several times since, but it was no use. And with Rachel away at boarding school for most of the year, he didn't have anyone.

As far as he knew, Annabeth went to boarding school in New York now, busy redesigning Olympus. Thankfully, the city was a big place. He hadn't run into her at all during the school year and he was greatful for it. Still, the year was ending and it was time to head back to camp. His bags were packed and waiting on the couch for when Thalia arrived.

He heard the front door open and went over to say hi. Thalia was a regular in the Jackson-Blofis household, so it was normal for her to let herself in.

"You ready to go Percy?" she asked, twirling her keys in her hands.

"Yeah, can you grab one of my bags for me?"

"No problem."

"Thanks." He said goodbye to his mother and hauled his remaining luggage into the trunk.

"Just so you know, we've got to pick up another demigod on the way," Thalia told him as they drove.

"A newbie?"

"Not really."

"Dam." Percy always liked to show off in front of new campers. It gave his ego a nice boost. They continued to navigate the streets of New York, when Thalia pulled up to an old white building. There were girls walking around it in plaid skirts, white blouses, and matching ties. They were all dragging boxes to cars parked on the campus.

"Please don't tell me we're picking up who I think we are," groaned Percy. Thalia rolled her eyes.

"What happened to you two? You were best friends before. Everyone at camp shipped it."

"_What?_"

"Don't play dumb Percy. It was obvious she liked you from the start."

"No she didn't. I think I would've known if she had a crush on me for four years."

"Remember when she was considering joining the hunters?"

"Yeah."

"Why do you think she chose to stay at camp?"

"I don't know, probably because it's her home and she's been there for so long and-"

"It was because of _you_! Gods Percy, you're so dense."

"There's no way that-"

"Look! I see her coming now!"

Percy looked where Thalia was pointing and saw a group of girl's in identical uniforms walking. In the center was- Annabeth? Yeah, it was definitely Annabeth. But she didn't look anything like the Annabeth he knew.

Her hair was blonder and straightened. It looked pretty frizzy too, like it had just fallen out of a ponytail. And was that- makeup? No way. Annabeth didn't wear makeup. She had clumpy mascara on and her lips looked bruised. And Percy could've sworn that was a hickey on her neck. She was holding onto her friends for support as she stumbled. Even Thalia looked shocked.

"Stay in here," she instructed as she got out of the car. Percy rolled down his window to try and hear the conversation.

"What happened to her?" asked a distressed Thalia.

"She just had a bit of a run last night, that's all," giggled one of the girls.

"Who did this to her?"

"No one. If anything, she did it to herself," laughed another.

"How could you let this happen to her?"

"Relax. She does it all the time. She'll be awake in a few hours, don't worry."

Percy watched as Thalia grabbed Annabeth and dragged her into the backseat of the car. The girls walked away together in a cluster of laughter, leaving Annabeth's bags behind. Thalia threw them into the trunk before sitting back down in the car. Tears were starting to form in her eyes, something Percy had never seen before. As far as he knew, Thalia didn't cry. She reached into a compartment and pulled out a bag of wipes.

"Here," she said as she handed them to Percy. "Wipe the makeup off her face before we get to camp." Percy took the bag and looked back at an unconscious Annabeth who was passed out in the back seat.

"What happened to her?" he mumbled.

"She's hungover Perc."

"Well duh, I can tell. But how did she end up like this. Annabeth wouldn't be caught dead looking like that."

"Just wipe her face off Percy. And some nectar wouldn't hurt either."

He looked at Annabeth's cold face. He remembered all the memories he had with her. Like when they had won the chariot race together. Or the just the summer prior when she had gotten her first quest. She had cried into him that day. At the time, he didn't know how to react. Now, he wish he'd done something else rather then just stand there.

He'd poured some nectar into her mouth and watched the color slowly return to her face. She blinked a few times and he realized that she was wearing blue contacts over her grey eyes. As he pressed the cold wipes against her face, she slowly regained consciousness. Every time she moved, he'd quickly pull his arm away until she was asleep again.

He managed to get the makeup off, but she still didn't look much better. Her hair was still messy, her lips were still bruised, and the hickeys on her neck didn't disappear. She woke up as they pulled into camp.

"W-where am I?" she groaned.

"We're heading to camp," said Thalia flatly.

"Camp? Now?"

"Yes, now."

"I wanna go back."

"No, you're not going back. It's too dangerous." Thalia sounded like she was arguing with a child.

"Where's Maddie and Emma and-"

"They went to their home. You'll see them once camp ends." As they drive up to the camp entrance, Thalia turned to Percy. "I have to get back to the Hunters. Can you make sure Annabeth gets to her cabin?"

"Thalia, I really don't-" he began.

"Percy. Take her to her cabin." He realized that she wasn't giving him much of a choice.

He got out of the car as Annabeth came out from her side. He extended an arm, but she denied it.

"I can walk," she stammered right as she tripped over herself. She ended up leaning against Percy's arm as they stumbled into camp together. He felt awkward as campers stopped and stared. The last thing he wanted anyone thinking was that he and Annabeth were a couple. They walked down the hill and into the cabin area where kids were starting to move in. He had to help her get up the stairs as they entered cabin 6.

Malcolm, her brother, was waiting inside with the other Athena kids. Annabeth collapsed onto her bed and everyone looked at Percy with wide eyes.

"What happened to her?" asked Malcolm.

"I don't know. Thalia and I went to pick her up from her school and she was just like this."

"What was happening at her school?"

"Like I said, I don't know. I haven't talked to her since last summer." The kids were all silent and gave each other a few sideways glances. Percy took that as his que to leave, and made his way to cabin 3. But as he walked, he heard a voice call from behind him.

"Percy!" He turned and saw Chiron galloping torwards him. Great. "I was just talking with Argus. He went to retrieve your bags from the van and said he thought there was something wrong with Annabeth. Is she okay? Where you attacked on the way here?"

"She's in her cabin," replied Percy as he turned back around. Chiron might've said something else, but he didn't bother to listen. He slammed the door as he marched into his cabin. He threw himself onto his bed and screamed into his pillow.

What was happening? Why was he acting this way?

_It's because you can't bare to see her like this, _whispered a voice in his head.

"No," he told himself. "She doesn't care about me, and I don't care about her. End of story." But he knew he was lying to himself.

**Make sure to follow/favorite/review if you liked it. I'm going to try and have part 2 up soon:))**


	2. 2

The next morning, Percy was finishing up breakfast at the Hermes table. He sat at the Athena table with Annabeth during breakfast and lunch all of last summer, but that clearly wasn't going to be happening at the moment. Connor Stoll leaned towards him.

"Hey Perce, Travis is ditching me today to go hang out with Katie. Are you down to do cabin inspections together?" He didn't have anything else to do that day because camp schedules hadn't come out yet.

"Sure, but can you take armory duty tonight?"

"No problem man."

Percy finished his breakfast, and slowly everyone stood up to head out to their daily happenings. Older counselors were giving the new campers tours, while the returning campers were going to revisit all of their favorite places.

Connor and Percy worked their way through each cabin. Thankfully, Percy's didn't look to bad since he hadn't bothered unpacking yet. When they reached Cabin 6, he hesitated.

"C'mon man, Annabeth's giving tours right now. You don't have anything to worry about," reassured Connor.

He was right, and the Athena cabin was completely empty. As they stepped in, Percy looked to his right and expected to see Annabeth's bunk looking the same as always. Unmade, covered in unfinished blueprints, and scattered with empty chip bags. To his shock, there wasn't a single trace of "Annabeth." Instead, her bunk looked like it belonged in the Aphrodite cabin, with fairy lights and polaroids hung up on the wall. As he stepped closer to look at the pictures, he saw all of them had dates written on them from the past year.

One showed Annabeth and two other girls at a football game in cheer uniforms. Another showed her at what looked like a party, holding a white claw. The more he looked, the more he began to realize how much she'd changed this past year.

"Having fun over there?" he heard Connor ask.

"Oh, uh yeah. Just making sure everything's looking neat over here."

"You don't have to hide it from me man, even I've seen it. Annabeth's changed a ton."

"I just don't get it. This isn't _Annabeth_." Right before Connor could open his mouth, the door swung open.

"There you are Percy!" exclaimed Silena Beauregard.

"Missed you too," Connor mumbled under his breath.

"I've been trying to find you all day! Have you talked to Annabeth yet?"

"What? No! Why would I? I mean the only-"

"I knew it! That's what's been going on! DREW!" she screeched as she dashed back towards the Aphrodite cabin.

"Weird," observed Connor, before he and Percy moved onto the next cabin.

Two hours later, Percy had finally finished helping Connor and had unpacked his cabin. He was tying his sneakers and getting ready to head down to the dining pavilion for lunch when 6 Aphrodite girls marched in, including Silena and Drew.

"Uh, nice of you guys to stop by, but I have to get to lunch now so-"

"You're not going anywhere right now Percy. Sit down," commanded Silena. "We've finally figured out what's going on with Annabeth!"

"I still don't think we should change her. I like new Annabeth way better," complained Drew. Silena rolled her eyes and turned back to Percy.

"So, like, I kept asking myself what caused Annabeth to change so much. Then I saw you looking at all of her pictures in her cabin and it hit me. It's _you_!"

"Me?" asked Percy. "I haven't talked to Annabeth since last summer. No way that any of this is my fault."

"Ugh, you're so dense Percy," groaned Silena. "It's because you didn't talk to her! When Annabeth saw you and Rachel-"

"How'd you know about that?"

"I know everything that happens around here. Back to the point, when she heard about you guys, her heart broke. It was _so _obvious she had her eyes on you ever since you guys came back from your first quest!"

"Silena, do you realize how ridiculous this sounds? Annabeth barely tolerated me all those years, and-"

"Oh my gods Percy, just listen! Annabeth had a crush on you, whether you want to realize it or not. Everyone else knew it. Her heart broke when she thought that you liked Rachel instead, so she gave up. She gave up trying to be the smart girl and always trying to impress you, because she thought it was pointless. She went back to school and turned into, well, a Rachel."

"This is still doesn't make any sense." All the girls groaned in unison. "You're trying to say that because Annabeth thought that I liked Rachel, she decided to completely change her entire personality?"

"Yeah, obviously."

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Now if you excuse me, I've gotta get to lunch."

Percy left his cabin and tried to shake off what the girls had said to him. Still, he couldn't stop thinking about it. What if he really was the reason for the new Annabeth?


	3. 3

Lunch was the only good part of his day. He'd missed the food and blue coke at Camp Half-Blood. Right as he was getting ready to leave, Chiron stood up.

"Greetings campers, and welcome back to another summer! Now that you've all had time to readjust, I have a few announcements. Our first capture the flag of the season will be tonight after dinner, which means you have only a few hours to split into teams. Finally, your activity and chore schedules have been posted in your cabins. We will be beginning our daily routine first thing tomorrow. You all have the rest of the day to do as you please. Be careful!"

And with that, the children filed out of the dining pavilion. As Percy turned to get off the bench, he kicked his feet out before he could look to see if anyone was behind him.

"OMG!" he heard a voice yell. He looked up and saw a head of blonde curls and grey eyes staring down at him.

"Sorry, I just uh-" he began, but she stomped off before he could finish.

"Smooth," snickered Travis Stoll, who was standing behind him with his arm around Katie. Percy punched him in the shoulder.

"Whatever, she's just overdramatic. C'mon, I wanna get back to the cabins and see what my schedule looks like."

"I'll catch you guys later, I promised Miranda I'd help her refurbish our back garden before dinner," said Katie as she left Percy and the Stolls standing alone.

When the trio reached Cabin 3, Percy saw his schedule already posted on the door. For the first time, he was going to be teaching classes. As his eyes grazed the list, he realized one small problem.

_3:00-4:15: Teaching Beginners Swordmanship w/ Annabeth Chase_

"No way, I'm not doing anything with her," he complained.

"Look what you have afterwards," pointed Travis. "You won't be getting rid of her anytime soon."

_4:30-5:30: Teaching Intermediate Swim w/ Annabeth Chase_

"That's it, I'm going to Chiron. There's no way I'm going to spend my summer having to deal with her. I'll meet you guys at dinner."

Percy marched down the hill and forwards the big house. Chiron and Mr. D were on the front porch playing pinochle, per usual.

"Ah, Percy. What's brought you here?" asked Chiron.

"I have an issue with my schedule, I don't want to teach any classes with Annabeth."

"My boy, I can't change the schedules now. It would mess up everything for all the cabins."

"Reality check Peter, just because the ocean revolves around you doesn't mean that this camp does," groaned Mr. D.

"Back to what I was saying," interrupted Chiron, "you and Miss Chase got along perfectly well last year. The two of you worked like a machine, I figured it would be perfect if you taught some classes together."

"Yeah, well, that's not gonna happen. I need you to change this."

"I'm afraid that's not going to happen Percy. Now if you excuse me, I think I see Annabeth coming this way, probably to complain about her schedule as well. You can return to your cabin unless, of course, you'd like to join us?"

"No thanks. I think I'll just go find a team for capture the flag."

Percy headed back towards the cabins, taking the long way to steer clear of Annabeth. Hopefully she would be able to convince Chiron that pairing them together wouldn't work. Then he finally got an idea. If anyone could convince Chiron of something, he knew who to ask.

He walked up the pink stairs of Cabin 10 and caught a whiff of perfume coming from the windows. He rang the doorbell(seriously, why would a cabin need a doorbell?) and waited for someone to answer. The door swung open and Silena stood there with a wide smile on her face.

"Percy! Thank _gods _you reconsidered! I literally didn't know what I was going to do! So, like, let me introduce you to the plan we made up," she squealed.

"Uh thanks, but no thanks Silena. I have to ask Drew something. Is she here?"

"She's straightening her hair right now. DREW!" The Asian girl emerged from the bathroom with half of her hair sleek and shiny, while the other half was frizzy and untamed.

"This better be important Silena. Oh hi Percy, did you finally reconsider?" she asked.

"Uh, no. But I needed to ask if you could do me a favor."

"Does it involve you and Annabeth?"

"Well, uh, kinda."

"Oh my gods! Of course I will! What do you need me to do? Set up a date? Help you pick out the perfect outfit for when you ask her out?"

"No, um, I need you to use your charmspeak. You see, Chiron kind of assigned Annabeth and I to teach a couple of classes together, and now he's refusing to change the schedule. But I figured that if you use your powers, he might-"

"Are you kidding? There's no way I'm doing that!"

"Drew, please. I'll do anything, I don't want to have to be around her all summer."

Before Drew could respond, Silena interrupted.

"You'd really do _anything _Percy?" she asked.

"Well, uh, probably. As long as it's not too crazy then I'd-"

"We'll make you a deal," started Silena. "If you agree to be on our capture the flag team for tonight's game, then Drew will _consider _using her powers for you. No guarantees though."

"What? That makes no sense, she's still going to refuse to use them."

"What do you have to lose? That's the only way you'll have a chance, otherwise you can forget it."

Silena was right, he didn't have to much to lose. He already had the Hermes cabin on his team, along with whoever else wanted to join. Plus his curse of Achilles made it nearly impossible to beat him.

"Deal."

As he left the cabin, he realized that he didn't think this through. He could hear the collective giggles of the girls still inside. They were definitely planning something.


	4. 4

By dinner time that night, each cabin had been sorted into a team. Poseidon, Hermes, Aphrodite, Demeter, Dionysus, and all the minor cabins made up the blue team. The red team consisted of Ares, Apollo, Athena, and Hephaestus. While it wouldn't be an easy win, Percy still felt pretty confident.

"Percy!" he heard a voice yell from behind him. He turned around and saw Silena waving to him from the Aphrodite table.

"Yeah?" he asked as he got up and walked towards her.

"For capture-the-flag tonight, make sure you choose right flank offense," she smiled.

"What? Why would I do that? I always go center and-"

"Trust me, Charlie told me where they're hiding their flag. You'll never find it if you go center."

"Fine."

An hour later, Percy was fixing his blue helmet and adjusting his armor. He listened as Chiron gave his usual "don't kill anyone" speech, and waited for him to blow the conch shell. Finally, he heard the horn and did exactly what Silena told him. He ran in the direction of right flank and kept alongside the shoreline.

He started to get a little suspicious when he realized that there was no defense anywhere around him. Did Silena purposely lie to him in order to blow the game and secure her boyfriend's cabin a victory? Just when he was about to head center, he was stopped.

Someone jumped down from the trees above, and by the time he realized who, he didn't have time to run. He met her cold gray eyes.

"Annabeth," he murmured.

"Drop your weapon Flounder."

"Not until I steal your flag. Let's see how bad you've gotten." He whipped out Riptide and swung it towards her. Instead, it came to a halt as her own dagger deflected it.

"Do you think I didn't run into my fair share of monsters this past year?"

"Not really, they were all to busy coming after me. Besides, I'm pretty sure you were too drunk to hold yourself up most of the time."

Before he knew it, the two were in a full on sword fight. He was so caught up in trying to beat her, he didn't even notice the sound of hundreds of pairs of feet growing louder.

"Percy! Annabeth! The blue flag has been retrieved! The game has concluded!" yelled Chiron, but neither listened. It wasn't until Annabeth had her dagger pointed at his Achilles spot that things really got intense.

"So you wanna play dirty?" asked Percy. He willed the water from the shore to form into a giant sphere, which splashed down on top of Annabeth and knocked her off her feet. She got up soaking with and filled with rage.

"That is _it, _Percy Jackson!" She probably would've clawed his eyes out if it weren't for Chiron.

"Enough!" he yelled. "Both of you in the big house _now_! Everyone else, return to your cabins. Tonight's victory goes to the Ares cabin."

The campers marched up the hill while Percy, Annabeth, and Chiron walked in the opposite direction towards the big house. They sat down on opposite ends of the ping pong table, while Chiron lectured them about how disappointed he was.

"You two are supposed to be model campers! You've gone on countless quests together, so there's no reason you shouldn't be able to handle a simple game of capture the flag! You do realize I'm going to have to punish both of you for that little show, right?"

"Chiron, I-"

"Silence, Annabeth. You're on clean-up duty for the rest of the month. Percy, you're in charge of cleaning and maintaining the dock. You'll find that we have some new visitors this year. And both of you can say goodbye to campfire and capture the flag for the rest of the summer. "

"But Chiron, if we can't handle a game of capture the flag, how do you expect us to teach _two _classes together?"

"I've already told both of you the same thing: the schedules aren't changing. You will have to learn to deal with one another. Now get back to your cabins."

When they left the big house, Percy didn't return to Cabin 3 right away. Instead, he took a walk along the beach to try and clear his head. It wasn't hard for him to figure out that Silena had purposely made him take right flank during capture the flag so that he'd run into Annabeth. That cabin was so desperate to get them together that he'd given up hope on Drew using her power to help him.

He sat down on the dock with his feet hanging off. Suddenly, he felt something touch his toes and he managed to pull his feet up just in time. He looked down and saw two nymphs?

"Um, can I help you?" he asked. He heard their voices, except they weren't moving their mouths.

_We come from far away lands Perseus Jackson. It is our help you seek. _

"Are you guys the new visitors Chiron was talking about?"

_Indeed. _

"Oh, uh, that's great. How exactly are you going to help me?"

There was no answer this time. Instead the two creatures disappeared, leaving behind two ripples of water.


	5. 5

By the next morning, Percy barely remembered the mysterious nymphs. He was too busy explaining his punishment to everyone. Campers were already starting to pick sides in the Percy vs. Annabeth feud.NStill, that didn't eliminate the fact that he had to teach with her later that day.

Chiron announced that the first campfire of the year would be held that night. Banning them from it was completely unfair because Annabeth would just be able to use her invisibility cap to sneak in. Whatever. Maybe he could raid the Hermes cabin for snacks since no one would be there.

The first half of his day went pretty smoothly. All he had to do get through archery, the rock wall, and arts and crafts. After lunch, he had music lessons with Grover which were always fun. He looked down at his schedule and realized that it was time to teach his first class.

With Annabeth.

He trudged over to the arena, where a cluster of young demigods sat waiting. For most, this was only their first or second summer here. He saw Annabeth already helping some find swords. She rolled her eyes at him and went back to what she was doing.

"Alright, once you get your sword come line up in front of me!" he called out. A small girl in the front row raised her hand.

"Um, we were told to sit back down once we got our swords."

"Well, I'm in charge too. I'm going to have you guys get straight into some drills."

"Absolutely not!" yelled Annabeth. "We need to explain the safety rules to them first. Plus all the parts of a sword, how to grip it, and-"

"That stuff is useless. The only way they'll ever learn is through experience."

"Hate to break it to you fish face, but not every one here can just inherited strength from our parents."

"Are you saying my dad just _gave _me all my strength?"

"Well I'm definitely not saying that you worked for it."

"I've worked harder in my four summers here then you have in your nine!" He knew that wasn't true, but he didn't care. He was pretty fed up with her.

"The only reason you survived all four of those summers was because of me! Medusa would've killed you instantly if it weren't for me realizing who she was. Circe would've kept you as a guinea pig and sold you!"

"Excuse me? Do you realize how many times I've died trying to save _you_?"

"The only reason I was in those situations in the first place was because of you!"

The two were screaming at this point, while a confused group of campers sat on the side.

"You know what? How about you take all of your safety rules and shove them-"

"Percy! Annabeth!" called a familiar voice. Chiron stood at the arena entrance. Clarisse, Travis, Katie, Silena, and Charlie were behind him.

"Could you two have been _any _louder?" asked Clarisse.

"None of us could run or activities because of you two!" complained Katie.

"I couldn't even teach the kids how to use a canoe because the water was becoming too vicious Percy!" yelled Travis.

Percy and Annabeth immediately started pointing fingers and blaming each other.

"Enough!" yelled Chiron. "Clarisse, go get Sherman and Malcolm and ask them to come teach this class for now. Travis and Katie, I'll need you to teach intermediate swimming after this. Percy, Annabeth, you're on quarantine in the big house until I work out a stronger punishment for you two."

——————————

"You two couldn't even last 24 hours without trying to tear each other's heads off again? I'm incredibly disappointed in both of you. Can you imagine what your parents would say about this?"

"I'm pretty sure my dad would be proud," muttered Percy under his breath.

"I haven't had to resort to this kind of punishment in the last two millennia. I hate to do this, but I'm afraid it's the only option. From now on, you've both lost cabin and activity privileges. You'll be staying in the Big House and will only leave for meals and chores. If you still can't manage to behave, then I'm afraid you two can say goodbye to the rest of your summer here. And I truly hope it doesn't come to that. In all the years I've been doing this, I've never had to kick a camper out. Now do we have an understanding?"

"Yes," they both murmured.

"Good. You each have one hour to pack up anything you have in your cabin. Once you get back here, Argus will show you to your new rooms."

**Hi guys! Thanks for all the positive reviews, I really hope you like what I'm doing with the story. Sorry for the short chapter, I'm going to try and update again tomorrow:)**


	6. 6

Percy's new room was right under the attic. He could almost hear the oracle whispering to him**(rachel isn't the oracle in this story)**. The room wasn't bad, but he missed having his own personal cabin. All he had here was a bed, a dresser, and a view of the canoe lake. Annabeth seemed to be taking the change a lot worse. She hated giving up her role of head counselor.

Her room was down the hall from Percy's, so at least he had space. The main issue was their bathroom situation. They had to share one now, which wouldn't be easy. He remembered how long his mom used to take to get ready in the bathroom. If Annabeth took more then five minutes to get ready in the morning, he was going to lose it.

——————

"Percy! Come on!" he heard Chiron yell outside his door.

"Give me a minute," he called back, still half asleep. He was used to walking down to breakfast whenever he felt like it. It's not like there was anyone to stop him.

"Percy! We need to be down there right now!"

"Fine," he groaned. When he went to brush his teeth, he couldn't find anything. Annabeth had taken over the bathroom with dozens of useless makeup and hair products. After searching for a few minutes and giving up, he walked downstairs, where Chiron, Annabeth, Argus, and Mr. D were waiting.

"You need to wake up earlier Percy. We're going to be late to breakfast now," said Chiron.

"Noted."

Breakfast sucked. Him and Annabeth had to sit at the head table instead of with their cabins. Everyone was stealing glances and whispering like they were on display. The Stolls tried to come up and talk to him, but Chiron wouldn't allow it.

When everyone left to go to their activities, Percy had to clean the dock. Annabeth barely had any chores since she shared them all with her cabin. In the distance, he could see several kids swimming in the lake. He resisted the urge to form a whirlpool.

_You are angry, _he heard a voice say. He looked down and saw the mysterious nymphs from the previous night.

"You're not wrong," he said.

_It is the girl. She angers you. _

"She's just so irritating. Because of her, my entire summer is ruined."

_How tragic. _The creatures disappeared into water ripples again. He rolled his eyes and went back to cleaning the dock. They were real helpful.

——————

That afternoon he was back in the Big House. He was starting to look at the bright side of things, like the fact that he was able to use the pantry here and didn't have to pay Connor and Travis to steal food for him. He was walking back up to his room with a bowl of cheese puffs and a Diet Coke when he saw that Annabeth's door was wide open.

He peered in and noticed she had already gotten a head start on decorating. She stood in the corner hanging up Polaroid pictures. She seemed almost peaceful while she was working. Suddenly, a gust of wind came from the window and the pictures began to fly everywhere. She grabbed as many as she could, and began to chase the ones that flew out of her grasp.

One landed in the hallway in front of Percy's feet. It was of her and another girl in front of the statue of Prometheus at Rockefeller Center. He picked it up and poked his head inside.

"Uh, I think you dropped this," he said. She gave him a suspicious look before taking it.

"Thanks," she said reluctantly, before closing the door.

"Mhm."

———————

That night was a campfire, which neither of them were participating in. Percy was in his room watching the campers file into the arena through his window. He could here the faint sound of Will Solace leading a song when he heard a pair of footsteps outside his door. He walked over and slowed peered his head out the door to see absolutely no one.

"Nice try Annabeth. But if I'm not going to campfire then neither are you," he called out.

He followed the sound of the footsteps down the stairs just in time to see the front door swing shut. He was about to chase after her, but realized that that was pointless because there's no way he'd be able to find her in a crowd while she was invisible.

——————

Percy was sitting on the couch in the den by the time Chiron, Mr. D, and Argus returned from the campfire. The only reason he was waiting there was so he could confront Annabeth once she got back. The problem was, the door didn't open after that.

_She probably just snuck in some other way, _he thought. But he still felt slightly uneased, and decided to take a walk to clear his mind.

After checking to make sure everyone else in the house was asleep, he made his way down to the shore. As he walked along the coast line, he stopped to sit on the dock. This time, no mysterious nymph creatures came to speak to him. As he took in the moonlight, he noticed a strange amount of bubbles floating a few feet out from him. Thinking it was a sea creature in trouble, he dove into the sea to try and save it.

Instead, he was surprised to see at least a dozen of the mysterious water nymphs in a herd. Around them, sea creatures gathered with terrified looks. He swam closer to see what was happening, and realized there was something in the middle of the nymph's cluster. Whatever it was, they were putting up a good fight as the creatures fought to restrain it.

He continued to swim closer to try and see what it was when he realized that it wasn't a sea creature. He saw streams of blonde hair and two pairs of feet kicking.

Annabeth.

"Let her go!" he yelled.

_Perseus Jackson, we've done what we've promised. We've helped you. _

"This isn't helping me! It's killing her!"

_She is the cause of your anger. Without her, you will no longer be angry. _

He realized that he wasn't going to be able to free her with diplomacy. He fished Riptide out of his pocket and went in for the fight. It was mostly a blur, but thankfully the monsters weren't too strong. They left behind several ripples of water and an unconscious Annabeth on the sea floor. The rest of the ocean animals were frozen in fear.

"What are you all looking at?" he asked them. "Help me get her to the top."

With the help of several hippocampi, he managed to pull Annabeth back onto the dock. The problem was, she still wasn't breathing. If he went to Chiron, he would have to explain that he broke the rules and would probably get sent home. There's no way he'd be able to bring her to the Apollo cabin in time.

He knelt down next to her and started to perform CPR. He could feel her pulse come back, but she still wasn't breathing.

"Now would be a good time to send help," he said to the sky, hoping a god might hear him. Yet, there was no answer.

He really didn't want to do this. Like _really _didn't want to. But he knew he couldn't just leave her here. He started performing mouth-to-mouth and s she woke up about 20 seconds in.

"Oh my gods," she gasped. "W-wait? Why are you here? Where'd they go? I s-"

"Jeez, calm down. I'll tell you in the morning, I'm way too tired right now."

The two walked up to the big house together in silence with at least 10 feet between them.


	7. 7

Things were pretty quiet in the Big House the next day. Neither Annabeth or Percy had any chores that morning, so they were both stuck inside until lunch. Percy was carrying a stash of powdered donuts up the stairs when Annabeth called his name.

"Percy?" she asked from her room.

"Uh, yeah?"

"Can you come in here a minute? I need to ask you something" He slowly opened the door and saw her sitting on her bed, looking at her phone.

"What's up?"

"What happened last night?"

"Oh, uh, you were drowning. The nymph creature things were strangling you."

"You mean the kaers?"

"Huh?"

"Gods, your dense. The 'nymph creatures' aren't nymphs. They're half nymph, and half siren. They're known for their extreme determination to please any man. Chiron brought them here this summer hoping that they could help increase the plant life in our lakes."

"Oh." He started to walk back to the door.

"Wait, so you said that they were strangling me?"

"Yeah, do you not remember anything?"

"I remember walking to shore because I wanted to see if I could get service, everything after that is fuzzy."

"You went against Chiron's rules because you wanted _cell service_? What text message is that important?"

"That's none of your business. All I'm asking is that you tell me what happened last night. Why were they strangling me?"

"Don't worry about that. What was so important that you risked getting kicked out of camp for it?"

"Just answer my question."

"Not until you answer mine."

"Fine. I was trying to text my friend to ask her to pick me up. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

"You mean you _want_ to leave? Just because you got into a little trouble, you're completely giving up? Do you realize how pathetic you sound?"

"It's more complicated then that Percy. Now c'mon, answer my question. All I want to know is why the kaers were trying to strangle me."

He didn't really know how to respond. What was he supposed to say, 'They were trying to help me because I told them how much a hate you'?

"I don't know. I didn't even know they existed until I saw you being drowned by them."

"You're a horrible liar."

"And you're a horrible person."

"Are you really trying to start this again?"

"I just think it's shallow that you're trying to sneak out of camp and risking your life to do it."

She couldn't even respond before he marched out of her room and slammed the door.

———————

That afternoon, the first mail arrived at camp. Percy got stuck with the task of delivering it to all the cabins. By the time he had finished, there was only one letter a left. A postcard for Annabeth. He didn't mean to read it, but there wasn't anything blocking the writing on the back.

_Annabeth,_

_I told you several times already. We booked the trip for four people because you told us you would be at camp. I can't do anything to change that, you'll just have to finish the summer until the school year starts again. I'm sorry. _

_-Dad_

As he walked into the Big House, he was still staring at it.

"Why are you reading that?" he heard a girls voice snap. He looked up and saw Annabeth sitting on the couch.

"I, uh, it's mine."

"Didn't I tell you that you're a horrible liar? Who else would be getting a postcard from Budapest?"

"Look, I didn't mean to read it. I was just delivering the mail for Chiron and my eyes landed on it."

"Whatever Perseus. Just don't do it again." She swiped the letter from his hands and marched back up the stairs.

"Wait!" he called.

"_What_?"

"I'm, uh, sorry. I didn't realize that you're family left you alone for the summer."

"I don't know why you're apologizing, but thanks I guess."

"Uh, sure. Anytime?"

————————

The next morning, word had spread quickly: a quest had been given to Katie Gardner and Travis Stoll. They had been sent to retrieve a golden apple from Hera's garden. There was a lot of worry about this, since the last person to try was Luke and he had failed miserably. Nevertheless, Chiron ensured everyone that he had complete confidence that the two would return back in one piece.

Percy and Annabeth had managed to avoid each other up until after lunch, when both of them were called into the Big House living room by Chiron.

"I'm sure your wondering why you're both here right now. In all honesty, I don't know why I'm letting you two have another chance," started Chiron. "But, due to Katie and Travis's absence and my lack of experienced swimmers available to teach today, I'm going to need you two to teach Intermediate Swimming in ten minutes. Do you think you can handle it?"

"Yes," Annabeth said immediately as if she'd been waiting for this question for her whole life. Chiron looked at Percy.

"I, uh, sure I guess," he stammered.

"Good. I'm warning you both, if this turns into another fight, you'll both be out of this camp by dinner."

———————

Percy and Annabeth were walking down towards the canoe lake, Annabeth leading a few feet ahead. There was a group of campers around 14 and 15 waiting at the dock. The moment they saw the two, they fell silent and stared.

"Alright, uh, what have you guys done so far?" asked Percy. A Hispanic girl from Hephaestus cabin spoke up.

"We usually just practice what we learned last year and they make sure we don't drown."

"Are you kidding? You haven't learned _anything _new?" questioned Percy. All the kids shook their heads.

"Well how about this," started Annabeth. "Percy can take half of you into the middle of the lake to practice retrieving items from underwater, and I'll keep a group over here to work on diving. Sound good?" Everyone, including Percy, nodded in agreement.

"Alright, I'll take the boys for the first half an hour. You guys can jump in and swim out to where I am. All the girls can go with Annabeth," instructed Percy.

The class actually went pretty well. The two managed to stay out of each other's way and teach. At the end, they had a few extra minutes and decided to have a challenge. It would be boys vs. girls, and the two teams would compete in a relay race. One member of each team would dive off the dock into the lake, retrieve one of the rings underwater, and return back. Then, the next person would go and the game would continue until one team had all of it's members back.

Annabeth was cheering on the girls team while Percy hyped up the boys. It looked like a victory for the boys until an Ares girl managed to pull her team forward, ending the race in a tie.

"Alright, nice class guys. I h-" began Percy.

"Wait a sec!" yelled Holly Victor. "Who won the game? Someone _has _to win."

"It was a tie," Annabeth explained.

"No way. One team _has _to win," argued Laurel Victor.

"Well we don't have enough time to have all of you guys go again, so you'll just have to wait until-"

"I've got an idea! You two should race!" yelled an Apollo boy. The kids all cheered in agreement.

"I really don't think that's a good idea," said Percy.

"What? Are you scared of losing to a girl, _Perseus_?" asked Annabeth. There was a sea of _ooooh'_s coming from the campers.

"Alright, but only one round," he agreed.

"No using your powers, water boy," said Annabeth. The two got into their starting positions.

"Ready! Set! Go!" yelled the Victor twins. Percy dove into the water. Above him, he could hear the pair arguing about who said "Go!" first.

He spotted the bright red ring and lunged for it. He looked around to see how far Annabeth had gotten when he realized that he couldn't see her. Had she really gotten the ring already? No way, that was impossible. Suddenly, he noticed a golden glint about 20ft away from him. He used his powers and thrusted himself towards it.

It was Annabeth's dagger.

This wasn't good, she would never have left her dagger behind. He searched for any sign of her when he noticed movement coming from a nearby patch of seaweed. He swam over and realized that it wasn't seaweed, it was the nymph things. What did Annabeth say they were called again? Whatever. He needed to focus. Using her dagger, he slashed at the creatures. Thankfully, they didn't put up to much of a fight. Most froze in fear at the sight of him. By the time they were all gone, Annabeth lied on the sea floor, her lips already turning blue.

Grabbing her by her waist, he pulled her up to the surface. Chiron was standing on the dock with almost all of the camp. Some of the kids looked like they were about to jump in the water to search for the pair.

"There they are!" someone yelled. Percy lugged Annabeth over to the dock. Chiron rushed forward.

"What happened to her?!"

"Those creature things you brought to camp, the attacked her," he huffed. "Where's Will, he's the only one here who can save her!"

Will solace ran forward with all of Apollo's healers behind him.

"I'm here!" he yelled. They pulled Annabeth out of the water and each grabbed a limb. "We'll have to take her to the infirmary, she could've been infected."

"Infected?"

"The touch of a kaer can be deadly to females unless- never mind. I've got to go!"

"Everyone return to your cabins! We'll reconvene at dinner!" yelled Chiron.

Percy was still in the water, gripping onto the edge of the dock while the rest of camp dispersed. In the distance, he could see the infirmary lights flicker on. Oh gods.

**Thanks for reading this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it! I also wrote another Percabeth story on called Cruisin' in case any of you want to check it out. Be sure to favorite, follow, and review!!**


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